What if you could go back in time?
Time moves in one direction. We cannot go back. But . . .
Imagine walking down a long, straight country road. Where you are, the ten or twenty feet alongside of you, is the present. The future, opening up before you, is out of focus beyond several yards as you trudge, skip, or walk firmly forward. If you care to look behind, your perspective narrows as details that are sharp in recent memory fade to a haze the farther you peer back.
Now imagine if you could rise above that road and get a panoramic view of all that exists on either side of your pathway—narrow paths and wide routes that lead to your road and a landscape that extends to the horizons beyond. That aerial view is what history gives. You can see more—you can perceive patterns and tracks, U-turns and dead ends, and directions that seem inevitable from this lofty perspective. You notice how your road is part of a much greater picture. With this panoramic view you lose the details of your story, but you can also note how your journey fits into the overall vista.